Review: DanceNoise, Lamenting AIDS and Armed With Fresh Blood

They threw dog snacks on the floor, stripped to nothing and toasted with glasses full of fake blood, which they poured on their naked bodies. They held up banners — one said “Silence,” the other “= Death” — and then used them to wipe each other clean.

On Thursday, Dancenoise, the fiercely feminist and transgressive post-punk performance duo of Anne Iobst and Lucy Sexton, who were an integral part of the East Village performance scene in the 1980s and ’90s, wrapped up a mixed bill with a bang, as part of Danspace Project’s Platform 2016: Lost and Found. The series explores the impact of the AIDS epidemic on generations of dance artists.

Dancenoise came to life during the AIDS crisis, and even though it was the oldest act on Thursday night’s program, it was easily the freshest. The evening opened with Brother(hood) Dance!’s “how to survive a plague,” an ambitious and cluttered work, created and performed by Orlando Zane Hunter Jr. and Ricarrdo Valentine, which had a voodoo air. As Mr. Valentine held an umbrella and covered the stage with forceful leaps, he seemed to embody Papa Legba, the gatekeeper to the spirit world.

This exploration of ritual and caregiving, which focused on those shunned because they had the disease, was full of false endings, including a long-winded scene in which the choreographers coaxed audience members onstage to dance.

In an excerpt from “Almodóvar Distopya,” Antonio Ramos and the Gang Bangers raced and twirled to the point of ebullience and exhaustion. Eric Gorsuch’s costumes — colorful ribbons artfully tied around naked dancers — were more intriguing than the thrashing, repetitive choreography. It looked like Easter bondage.

Finally, Dancenoise wasted little time in bringing up the recent presidential election. Ms. Iobst mentioned that their original plans had been to talk about fracking and the Dakota Access pipeline. Ms. Sexton joined her for the punch line: “But then Tuesday happened.”

Their performance also included a charismatic chorus of six women in black, each with the word “No” on her back. By the end of the piece — a brisk, brash 15 minutes — the group held two banners. The first said, “The time is now,” through which Ms. Iobst and Ms. Sexton, now in gold unitards, raced like marathon winners. The performance ended with another message: “The great work begins.” The nasty women are back, and they’re feeling extra political.